A white New York City mother has endured a year of threats from Black Lives Matter protesters and now fears for her and her family's safety after she drove into a group of protesters who attacked her car while she was going Christmas shopping with her daughter last year, her lawyer claims.
In an exlcusive interview with DailyMail.com, Oliver Storch, a Manhattan-based attorney, said Kathleen Casillo, 53, a retired FedEx worker of over 20 years, has received numerous threats and 'lives in fear for herself and her family' after she decided to go Christmas shopping in Manhattan with her 29-year-old daughter on December 11, 2020 and slammed into a group of 50 Black Lives Matter protesters, injuring at least nine.
Casillo, of Howard Beach, Queens, told police in the aftermath that the demonstrators came up to her car and called her a 'white privilege b**ch' before banging on the vehicle and trying to pry open its doors.
Damage to the 2019 black BMW sedan is clearly visible in photos from the incident.
Casillo, a mother of three, was issued no more than a desk appearance ticket for the incident and was released only hours after her arrest. Her 29-year-old daughter was also in the car at the time, but was not charged.
Casillo was also charged with reckless assault in the third degree on February 22.
But since the collision, Storch said, Casillo and her family have 'been threatened and harassed,' to the point where she had to be escorted into the Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday by security officers as protesters outside compared her to a female Kyle Rittenhouse.
He said he now hopes Casillo could receive a fair trial, after she rejected a six-day community service and one year license suspension plea deal on Wednesday, and is now demanding a jury trial.
She is due back in court on January 28.
Kathleen Casillo, center, was escorted into Manhattan Criminal Court by security officers on Wednesday, as her attorney, Oliver Storch, right, claims she has received threats to her life
Storch claims Casillo, left, now lives in 'fear for herself and her family' after she slammed into a group of Black Lives Matter protesters last year and injured nine
Casillo, 53, rejected the court's offer for a plea deal which would have offered her six days of community service and one year license suspension, in favor of a trial
Casillo, a mother of three, was issued no more than a desk appearance ticket for the incident and was released only hours after her arrest on December 11, 2020
Casillo was arrested by the NYPD after plowing her car through the ICE demonstration on December 11
In the interview with DailyMail.com, Storch claimed Casillo is not a racist zealot as some protesters are making her out to be. He said she simply decided to go into Manhattan to go Christmas shopping with her daughter on December 11, 2020 when she 'happens to get swarmed by a mob of angry protesters' at the intersection of 39th Street and Third Avenue.
At one point, he said, her window was smashed in and she panicked and hit the gas, plowing in to the protesters. The car was impounded after the collision, Storch said, but because it was leased she has continued to have to make payments on it for the past year.
'This is an unfortunate incident,' he told DailyMail.com, adding: 'Not every accident is a crime.'
In the aftermath, The City reported at the time, screenshots posted to social media show Facebook and Instagram accounts belonging to a Kathy Bell Casillo with posts supportive of then-President Donald Trump's handling of the COVID pandemic and likes for a group called 'I stand with Rudy Giuliani.'
The accounts had been deleted in the aftermath, but appear to have been reinstated, albeit without much information made public.
Her Facebook profile now just shows likes for pages about making September 11 a 'MAJOR National Holiday,' and putting the Twin Towers on New York license plates. She also follows a page entitled 'Conservative Politics Today.'
Storch has now rejected claims that Casillo is racist and intentionally hit the protesters, calling it a 'false narrative' that is 'without merit and deeply disturbing.' He notes that Casillo did not have a prior criminal history and has 'no history of having hurt anybody,' claiming 'her heart goes out to the victims.'
He said he now hopes Casillo could get a fair trial, claiming protesters who gathered outside the Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday were trying to intimidate the prosecutors' office and Manhattan District Attorney for harsher punishment and sentencing.
'Mob rule should
